Bedatec Security Advisory 200506110001
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Discovered : 2005-06-06
Vendor notified : 2005-06-11
Release date : 2005-06-23
PoC release : around 2005-07-23
Author : Andreas Beck
Application : Realchat
Severity : Insecure logon handling allows to impersonate any user
Insecure logon handling allows efficient Spambots.
Strange semantics of the /me command may cause minor
privacy breach.
Risk : Medium (no extra privileges gained, but other users may
be deceived about the identity)
Vendor : http://www.realchat.com/
Vendor status : Vendor notified
Vendor statement : Missing feature. Will be rectified by a release that has
a server side user database.
Affected Versions: At least Version 3.5.1b is affected.
CVE reference : none.
Overview:
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Realchat is a popular Java-Client based Chat Software used in quite some
Web communities.
Its logon-Protocol is completely unauthenticated, allowing to impersonate
any user. It is not yet clear, if it could also be exploited to gaining
administrative privileges. According to some webdesigners using the chat,
admin privileges are secured using a password mechanism. However it is
unclear how effective it is.
On a sidenote, using the "/me" command in a private chat session causes
the Text to appear in the main Chatroom, possibly giving away private
information.
Details:
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While designing an alternate chat client (the Java client is far too
heavyweight for me), I discovered, that the protocol doesn't seem to
have any authentication.
By modifying the custom chat client to send another username, it was
possible to log on as any user.
However this kind of spoofing is often rather easy to spot, if we are
dealing with administrative accounts, as Realchat uses avatars in its
userlist, which usually differ for admins.
However this is as well easily spoofed, as the number of the avatar
is spoofable in the same way.
Proof of concept/How to reproduce:
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Method 1)
Capture the start of a Chat session.
Replay it, but replace the Username with one of the same length.
Same for the avatar number.
Details on how to do further changes (other length usernames, etc)
in the PoC-Code.
Method 2)
Use a suitable Proxy to modify the page that sets up the chat window or
save it locally and modify it.
PoC Code:
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We have a simple working Chatclient that allows to use any username (even
very long names) and any avatar as well as any smiley as an avatar.
There is no support for changing rooms or starting private chat sessions
yet.
PoC code will be withheld for another month to allow webmasters using the
chat to take proper precautions, if they think the threat is worth to
bother.
Vendor Response:
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2005-06-11 -> Realchat notified via EMail
2005-06-13 Suggested a simple HMAC-like scheme that would require
sniffing another users session to impersonate him.
2005-06-17 http://www.bedatec.de/